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What Is Growing Inside Maria

Heidi King takes you to particular kind of demented horror. Sex, magick and crime that becomes a mental labyrinth, a psychological game of horror that won’t let you put the book down even after you’ve read it. And that’s ok because a link at the end takes you to real life places and interactive games that put you in the terrifying place of the damned.Heidi King is the new voice of horrorThe twists and turns of the maze were exasperating but I was determined to reach the source of the noise. Then all at once I turned into a small clearing and saw Maria, completely naked. Her skin was ghostly white in the green lights that lit the labyrinth. Even then she was beautiful. She kept digging a small hole, oblivious to my presence. I walked up to her and said,“Maria,” and gently touched her elbow. I startled her. She jerked forward, towards me and tripped backwards into the hole she had been digging. I felt a deep chill and dark sense that I broken something I wasn’t supposed to touch. She squinted at me. “Matt?” she murmured.“No,” I said slowly. She looked disappointed. “Why are you digging?” I asked.She hesitated and looked around. “I don’t know,” she whispered. “Where am I?”Suddenly she stood straight up in the shallow hole and began frantically wiping the palm of her hand as though she were looking for some kind of answer there. She stopped just as quickly and raised her hand slowly to allow the light to catch some kind of symbol drawn on the palm of her hand. I saw her eyes widen in abject terror as if she was watching her own shocking death on the palm of her hand. I think she stopped breathing. Her mouth was wide open like she wanted to scream. She looked down at her body. She began running her hands up her bare thighs to her vagina. I saw something odd there and Maria’s expression changed from horror to disgust, like she was about to vomit. I tried to grasp what could possibly be protruding from between her legs. It slowly started oozing out covered in blood. It dropped to the ground. It was a bulbous vial full of what must have only been blood.Her eyes looked like they would bulge out of the sockets. She collapsed in a hysterical fit and began to scream. I reached down to comfort her but she only screamed louder, transgressing into semi-coherent ranting in English and Spanish. “Rip the zipper, separate my flesh, she won’t be born… yellow, yellow, yellow teeth!” Over and over again convulsing wildly until all at once she passed out. I wrapped her in the red rain jacket I had come to The Lost and Found for. Suddenly Mike appeared out of the dark gloom and in a flurry of movement he scooped Maria up and whisked her into the passages of the labyrinth. A bizarre satyr carrying a limp maiden into the night best describes the unreal image etched into my eyes.“Did Dr. Stephen try to draw a symbol on your hand? Where was Matt? Was it a syringe?” Over and over I would be asked these same questions by my friends, the families, the Panamanian police, but most of all I questioned myself. Over and over again, while I tried to forget, while I literally washed the splattered blood to remove all signs of the sick horror at The Lost and Found. I want to put this to rest and move on with my life even if I can never return to a completely normal life. So once and for all I am going to plunge into the dark corners of the garden of my memories. In the following pages I use the words of those involved; the blogs, the emails and personal diaries and when I have to; my words. With these pages I take the shovel and I will bury this tragedy forever. This is what happened.
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Love Has No Direction

Wes is haunted by his past, and Parker has no direction for his future. While looking into the death of Parker's ex, they find friendship and attraction, but can the path of destruction lead to lasting love?
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Blessed Benediction

A daring femme proves to her friends that getting down on her knees doesn't mean she isn't in control. And her horny lover couldn't be more happy about the demonstration. An erotic exhibition of just how to do it.Previously published in Tasting Him, ed. Rachel Kramer Bussel (Cleis Press, 2008); republished in Radical Encounters (Bold Strokes Books, 2009).
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The Survivor

The past returns to haunt a guilt-stricken man who survived a tragic Antarctic expedition decades earlier in this powerful and thought-provoking novel from the author of *Schindler’s List* A professor at an Australian university, Alec Ramsey has lived an eventful life, much of which he is reluctant to discuss. In the 1920s, he was a member of a small expedition to Antarctica that resulted in the tragic death of its leader and Ramsey’s dear friend, Stephen Leeming. Four decades later, Ramsey has yet to make peace with himself over two things: He had slept with Leeming’s wife just prior to their embarkation, and his friend had still been alive when Ramsey left him behind on the ice at the bottom of the world. Closemouthed avoidance has enabled Ramsey to go on with his life in academia, despite the “betrayal obsessions” that have become an integral part of his being, even though what he so vividly recalls may or may not be the truth. But now there will be no silencing Ramsey’s inner demons—because, after forty years frozen in the Antarctic, Leeming’s body has finally been found. An enthralling, profoundly affecting novel of guilt, perception, and endurance, The Survivor is a gripping story from award-winning author Thomas Keneally. Intriguing and intelligent, it is a masterful fictional journey through the complex labyrinth of the human heart and psyche.
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The Boston Girl

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Red Tent and Day After Night, comes an unforgettable coming-of-age novel about family ties and values, friendship and feminism told through the eyes of a young Jewish woman growing up in Boston in the early twentieth century. Addie Baum is The Boston Girl, born in 1900 to immigrant parents who were unprepared for and suspicious of America and its effect on their three daughters. Growing up in the North End, then a teeming multicultural neighborhood, Addie's intelligence and curiosity take her to a world her parents can't imagine - a world of short skirts, movies, celebrity culture and new opportunities for women. Addie wants to finish high school and dreams of going to college. She wants a career and to find true love. Eighty-five-year-old Addie tells the story of her life to her twenty-two-year-old granddaughter, who has asked her "How did you get to be the woman you are today?" She begins in 1915, the year she found her voice and made friends who would help shape the course of her life. From the one-room tenement apartment she shared with her parents and two sisters, to the library group for girls she joins at a neighborhood settlement house, to her first, disastrous love affair, Addie recalls her adventures with compassion for the naïve girl she was and a wicked sense of humor. Written with the same attention to historical detail and emotional resonance that made Anita Diamant's previous novels bestsellers, The Boston Girl is a moving portrait of one woman’s complicated life in twentieth-century America, and a fascinating look at a generation of women finding their places in a changing world.
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Shine

Jodi Picoult tackles issues of race and privilege in this ebook original short story, a prequel to her upcoming novel *Small Great Things*. In “Shine,” the master storyteller and #1 New York Times bestselling author of *Leaving Time* and *My Sister’s Keeper* introduces readers to the unforgettable Ruth Brooks. Today is Ruth’s first day of third grade at Dalton. The prestigious institution on New York’s Upper East Side couldn’t be more different from her old school in Harlem. Despite being the smartest girl in her grade, Ruth suspects that her classmates and teachers only see her dark skin. She also notices that Christina, the daughter of her mother’s employer, treats Ruth very differently when they’re hanging out with the popular girls rather than playing together. Ruth must navigate between two worlds, never losing sight of the dreams she has for herself—in hopes that someday, someone will see her for who she really is. Includes a preview of Jodi Picoult’s highly anticipated new novel, *Small Great Things*!**
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Run, Rose, Run

From America's most beloved superstar and its greatest storyteller—a thriller about a young singer-songwriter on the rise and on the run, and determined to do whatever it takes to survive.Every song tells a story. She's a star on the rise, singing about the hard life behind her. She's also on the run. Find a future, lose a past. Nashville is where she's come to claim her destiny. It's also where the darkness she's fled might find her. And destroy her. Run, Rose, Run is a novel glittering with danger and desire—a story that only America's #1 beloved entertainer and its #1 bestselling author could have created.
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The Sword of the Lictor

Beneath the dying sun the disgraced torturer, Severian, at last comes to his place of exile - Thrax, the City of Windowless Rooms. But Severian's journeying is not ended, and high in the Earth's ancient mountains he draws closer to his destiny.
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Stormcaster

The third book in the thrilling four-book Shattered Realms series from New York Times bestselling author Cinda Williams Chima The empress in the east—the unspeakably cruel ruler whose power grew in Flamecaster and Shadowcaster—tightens her grip in this chilling third installment in the series. Vagabond seafarer Evan Strangward can move the ocean and the wind, but his magical abilities seem paltry in comparison to Empress Celestine’s. As Celestine’s bloodsworn armies grow, Evan travels to the Fells to warn the queendom of her imminent invasion. If he can’t convince the Gray Wolf queen to take a stand, he knows that the Seven Realms will fall. Among the dead will be the one person Evan can’t stand to lose. Meanwhile, the queen’s formidable daughter, Princess Alyssa ana’Raisa, is already a prisoner aboard the empress’s ship. Lyss may be the last remaining hope of bringing down the empress from within her own tightly controlled territory. Multiple intricately interwoven storylines converge in this gripping novel about a brave, coordinated effort to undermine a horrific tyrant.
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Kowalski's in Love

**Experience a heart-pumping and thrilling tale of suspense! Originally published in THRILLER (2006),edited by #1 * New York Times* bestselling author James Patterson. In this Thriller Short from #1 New York Times bestselling writer, James Rollins, brings a story that’s no love story, at least not in the traditional sense. Fans of Rollins’s Sigma Force series know Joe Kowalski, a naval seaman with the heart of a hero, but lacking the brainpower to go with it. Kowalski stays in trouble and here readers will get to know a bit more about his backstory. One that illustrates something Kowalski seems to live by. Dumb luck is better than no luck at all. Don’t miss any of these exciting Thriller Shorts: James Penney’s New Identity by Lee Child Operation Northwoods by James Grippando Epitaph by J. A. Konrath The Face in the Window by Heather Graham Kowalski’s in Love by James Rollins *The Hunt for Dmitri * by Gayle Lynds Disfigured by Michael Palmer and Daniel Palmer The Abelard Sanction by David Morrell Falling by Chris Mooney Success of a Mission by Dennis Lynds The Portal by John Lescroart and M. J. Rose The Double Dealer by David Liss Dirty Weather by Gregg Hurwitz Spirit Walker by David Dun At the Drop of a Hat by Denise Hamilton The Other Side of the Mirror by Eric Van Lustbader Man Catch by Christopher Rice Goodnight, Sweet Mother by Alex Kava Sacrificial Lion by Grant Blackwood Interlude at Duane’s by F. Paul Wilson The Powder Monkey by Ted Bell Surviving Toronto by M. Diane Vogt Assassins by Christopher Reich The Athens Solution by Brad Thor Diplomatic Constraints by Raelynn Hillhouse Kill Zone by Robert Liparulo The Devils’ Due by Steve Berry The Tuesday Club by Katherine Neville Gone Fishing by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
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Sweet Home Louisiana

A sexy, small town, second chance romance.Thanks to a drawn-up-while-drinking-moonshine partnership agreement, Madison Allain has to spend thirty days back on the bayou before she can sell her part of the family business.And if the heat and humidity and freaking alligators of Louisiana aren't enough to agitate the cool and in-control California girl, then Owen Landry, the equally hot guy who stole her heart twelve years ago, will sure do the trick.Owen just has to remember three simple-ish rules: Do not fight with her. Do not fight over her. Do not kiss her. He can do this. He's charming and friendly for a living after all. But this is Maddie. The only woman to ever shake up this laid-back bayou boy.Besides, she's not staying. No way. These people and this town make her crazy. She doesn't want to be crazy. She definitely does not want to own a swamp boat tour company. She just wants to paint. In her quiet, beautiful,...
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The Walk

The latest New York Times bestseller from one of today's most inspiring writers. What would you do if you lost everything - your job, your home, and the love of your life - all at the same time? When it happens to advertising executive Alan Christoffersen, he's tempted by his darkest thoughts. With a bottle of pills in his hand and nothing left to live for, he plans to end his misery. But then Al decides instead to take a walk - no ordinary walk, but one that would take him to the farthest point on his map: Key West, Florida. Taking with him only the barest of essentials, and leaving behind all that he's ever known, Al heads off on a journey into the unknown. The people he encounters along the way and the lessons they share with him, will save his life - and inspire yours. The Walk is the story of an unforgettable, life-changing journey, and an inspiring account of one man's search for hope.
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Grasslands

Through H-shaped windows.My name is Broken. I fix things. It's what I do.Do cockroaches have lungs and believe in God? Such questions occupy Vern, whose manic instability is only surpassed by his friend Almeric who is building a hydrogen bomb. If only it would go off.Then there's Ed. Or is there? Ed isn't sure and nobody seems to want to listen.
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Worst Case

One by one, children of New York's wealthiest are taken hostage. But the criminal doesn't crave money or power--he only wants to ask the elite if they know the price others pay for their luxurious lifestyles. And, if they don't, he corrects their ignorance--by killing them. To Detective Michael Bennett, it becomes clear that these murders are linked and must be part of a greater, more public demonstration. With the city thrown into chaos, he is forced to team up with FBI agent Emily Parker, and the two set out to capture the killer before he begins his most public lesson yet--a deadly message for the entire city to witness. From the bestselling author who brought you the Alex Cross novels comes James Patterson's most action-packed series yet. With the heart-pounding suspense that only Patterson delivers, Worst Casel leave you gasping for breath until the very end. From the shocking first page to the last exhilarating scene, Worst Case is a non-stop thriller from "America's #1 storyteller" –Forbes).
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